VirusTotal and Jotti are two popular online virus scanning services that you can use to scan any file for viruses. You just need to upload your files and these online virus scanners will scan those files with multiple antivirus software, and will report result of scan.
VirusTotal and Jotti are pretty good, and quite similar. So, I thought I would do a small comparison between Jotti and VirusTotal to see which one is better.
Before we get to the part about how VirusTotal and Jotti are different, let’s see what are the similarities between both:
- Both VirusTotal and Jotti have a file size limit of 20MB.
- Both VirusTotal and Jotti use multiple antivirus software to scan files.
- Both VirusTotal and Jotti are completely free, and do not require any registration.
- You can use either of these in completely similar way: just upload your file, and these online virus scanners will scan those with multiple antivirus software.
- Both services have desktop clients as well: VirusTotal desktop client, and Jotti desktop client.
Now, let’s see differences between VirusTotal and Jotti:
Antivirus software used:
Both VirusTotal and Jotti use multiple antivirus software to scan files. However, VirusTotal uses many more antivirus software than Jotti. I uploaded a file in both VirusTotal and Jotti. Jotti used 19 antivirus software to scan files, whereas VirusTotal used 43 antivirus software. Also, VirusTotal has almost all the antivirus that Jotti used. Apart from that, VirusTotal has some of the popular antivirus software, that surprisingly Jotti lacks. A few of those are: McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro.
Clearly, VirusTotal wins in this regard.
Scan Options:
Jotti lets you upload files that you want to scan. VirusTotal lets you upload files, and it also lets you scan URLs. Jotti does not have the feature of scanning URL. I find URL scanning a useful feature, as you can use this to scan a file even before downloading it (only if that file has a direct URL).
SSL upload:
When I am uploading a file to a website, I am extra cautious about security. VirusTotal provides an option to use SSL security while uploading the file, but Jotti lacks this feature.
The differences mentioned above are the only real differences I could find between VirusTotal and Jotti. However, VirusTotal beats Jotti in all three areas. Importantly, I believe VirusTotal is better than Jotti simply because it uses many more antivirus software that Jotti uses, and whole purpose of using such a service is to scan a file with multiple antivirus software. More the merrier.
Overall, VirusTotal is our winner of VirusTotal vs Jotti comparison. As I mentioned in my article about Jotti, Jotti is a good option to get second opinion about a file that you have already scanned with VirusTotal.
Let us know what you think about these two services.
Discussion6 Comments
Hi :)
I must agree , VirusTotal is much better than Jotti.Why ? VirusTotal uses 43 antivirus software and Jotti “only” 19.
Thanks
Best
Danny
@Danny: I agree – that itself is a pretty big factor :)
I was only linked to this comparison today, so I figured I would post here, no matter how belated it might be.
First, all files uploaded through JottiQ are uploaded through SSL, and this has always been the case. It would seem the regular scanning interface does not support this, however. (Another reason to use the client – remind me to add it to the list of features.)
Second, JottiQ is not an ‘official’ client by any means – it is the product of me being a fan of his service and using it for around 5-6 years and wishing to make it more usable, and him welcoming it and providing me with an API to use for this purpose. At one point in the many discussions I had with him, it was said he may or may not link to it on his page at some point, but for as far support goes I am the _only one_ to support and develop JottiQ.
Whether or not Jotti or VirusTotal is better, that’s a matter of taste and ones needs. For most people, there will be no difference of importance between the two, and I think we should be grateful to both parties for making their services available.
I do not consider your evaluation to be soundly based.
You fail to consider:
Availablity of each service.
Time to scan for each service.
The number of top 20 AV’s used by each.
Also the task of analysing, lets say 43 outcomes from Virus Total’s many AV programs, at least for the casual, user will be very daunting, bearing in mind that it’s almost a given that some AV’s will deliver false positives.
Bear in mind that trend Micro (for example) is these days not highly rated, yet you mention it. Also G-Data, now very highly rated, uses the definitions from only TWO AV’s, both highly regarded.
In summary there is generally speaking no practical difference; the biggest single limitation with both is the restriction on file size.
The reports from each will not offer any definitive clearance on a suspect file when viewed by relatively inexperienced users.
A better solution (which may not always work or be practical) may be to contact your AV vendor & ask if you can send them the suspect file. I have found this works often even with free SW.
You forgot to check the most important thing:
Do the results come back DIFFERENTLY when scanning the same file… on both sites?
Does anyone know why jotti would leave out the 3 biggest virus-checkers in the world?
McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro…. as well as dozens of others?
> the biggest single limitation with both is the restriction on file size.
Do you regularly see common viruses that are 25,000,000 bytes in size????